*Content warning for discussion of sexual assault, self-harm and suicide*

This talk was recorded at the Institute for Critical Animal Studies Oceania 2017 Conference in Melbourne. You can find out more information about this conference here: http://www.criticalanimalstudies.org/oceania-conference/

You can listen to other talks from this conference here.

In order to be notified about future conferences, like/follow ICAS Oceania on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe for email updates from ICAS Oceania.

Talks recorded by Progressive Podcast Australia and Vegan Sci podcast. You can also listen to a recap of the conference on episode 179 of Progressive Podcast Australia.

Below is further information about the talk from the conference booklet, available here: http://www.criticalanimalstudies.org/booklet/

Workshop: Femme Panel

JESS, CEE, NATY & NICK

In activist spaces, femmes have constantly been told we are products of patriarchy , over the top consumers duped by capitalism, or that we have internalised misogyny and

therefore we are oppressed and don’t know it. The list goes on and on. When these

attitudes intersect with femme’s other identities, such as race, sexuality and/or class, such comments become more emphatic. In this panel, we choose to show that our femme

identities are not capitulations, that in fact these comments about us are steeped in

misogyny that is then forced on femme bodies, regardless of gender. We choose to speak openly about these issues, yet again, because apparently, people are still not listening. We again must spend our labour arguing that our identities, our desires, and our lives are not in fact sheer products of the patriarchy, that in fact we have agency, and that we choose to wear eyeliner whilst doing activism because we are femme, not oppressed. So, stop talking over us, stop speaking for us, and come to this panel to listen. There will be no question time, we are sick of being questioned. There will be no easy space to admire us for being so “out there”. This will be a space to unpack your own assumptions, your own femmephobia that says our choice of clothing is lesser than yours, that in fact our

existence is lesser than yours. This won’t be comfortable, but it will be fabulous. Because above all else, we are fabulous. And really, we need to celebrate that. 

                Jess is a queer working class femme and an anti-capitalist high heel fanatic. She is the Representative for the Institute for Critical Animal Studies,         Oceania and a PhD Candidate and tutor at La Trobe University on Wurundjeri                 land. Jess is also a rescuer for the Coalition Against Duck Shooting, and editor for              the journal Writing from Below. In her spare time she can be found ranting                about prison abolition, queer revolution and fermentation.

Cee is a queer/ non-binary/ femme/ dandy boy/ performance artist. They          are currently studying their honours in Gender, Sexuality and Diversity at       Latrobe, writing a thesis on queer bodies and trauma. Cee is a political agitator                whose activism is mainly geared towards improving the sexual education and    mental health of LGBTQIA+ youth through the Arts (and beyond) through work such as the Safe Schools Story Project and political  theatre workshops with St Martins, Riot Stage and Bentleigh Secondary College.

Naty is a fierce Latina queer woman with no background in academia. She is a personal injury lawyer, a roller derby player and a co-founder of a vegan intersectional feminist animal sanctuary called Big Sky Sanctuary Inc. She enjoys listening to true crime podcasts, outrageous lipstick and smashing the patriarchy.

Nick is a white-settler genderqueer trans femme. They make trouble, perform noise and wishes it was safer for them to be the femme they want to be. They helped start Incendium Radical Library and Wrenchworthy Bicycle Shed, and are a former national convenor of the Australian Student Environment network.

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews